Sunday, July 2, 2017

Is Immigration to the U.S. an Entitlement? There are Some Who Think it is

If a sympathetic backstory justifies breaking the law with impunity, then we have no rule of law.

The real debate about immigration isn’t about the terms of Trump’s travel order. It’s an effort to treat entry to the U.S. as a right.

For the past six months, the debate about immigration has centered on the campaign to derail President Trump’s temporary travel ban. But now that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed it to go forward, at least in part, the discussion has started to shift. Critics are backing away from the contention that it’s biased to impose greater scrutiny on immigrants or refugees from countries where terrorism is rampant. The new arguments, stripped of their anti-Trump resistance rhetoric, are not so much about whether the administration is prejudiced against Muslims but whether people living in foreign countries have a right to come to the United States regardless of any other consideration.

The notion that entry to the United States is not a privilege granted by the government but an entitlement is the underlying premise of two New York Times articles published the day after the Supreme Court ruling. One focused on the plight of those refugees who will be kept out of the country pending the review of the ban. The other story, a New York Times Magazine feature, depicted the condition of illegal immigrants who are deprived of proper medical care because of their worries about being caught. While these are legitimate inquiries, the assumption of both pieces is that any effort to further vet refugees or to enforce existing immigration laws is inherently illegitimate.

Sympathy for displaced persons or for those who entered the country illegally should prevail over any other concern, the Times stories suggest. This is not a new idea. It has been the driving force behind the effort to grant the so-called DREAMers — those who were brought here illegally as children — rights of residency, if not citizenship. It’s also what motivates the push for amnesty for all illegals. Such sympathy is understandable — but if compassion is the only consideration, then the only logical conclusion is that anyone who wants to enter the United States should be allowed to do so with no questions asked.